Heron fishing in Newport, Pembrokeshire

Here's a heron I videoed whilst on a walk yesterday.

(More hedgehogs soon - the trail camera battery takes an AGE to re-charge!)

Hedgehogs and other animals on the bottom step

Last night I put a bowl of food on the bottom slate step leading into the lower garden, partly to see if the hedgehogs were willing to roam around the garden a bit more and not just stay in the bottom left corner by the compost heap, and partly because I thought the video would be better with the slate beneath them rather than grass and without foliage causing infrared light bounce-back to the camera.

Come the morning a number of birds also make an appearance, as does Elsa.

Hedgehogs on Wednesday night

The latest hog movie from here in Pembrokeshire. Also features to now usual mouse and robin!

Hedgehogs... and a mouse... and a robin

It's not only hedgehogs that are partial to mealworms, it seems!

Solitary hedgehog(s) on Tuesday night

All last night's video captures where a hedgehog was present showed just a solitary hedgehog. Whether they all show the same individual or if a number of different hedgehogs were visiting at different times, I do not know.

It's interesting to note that whereas on previous nights there are no video captures of hedgehogs past 11:30pm, last night there were hogs still showing up at gone 3:00am. I wonder if the rain had anything to do with it?

By the way, there were mealworms scattered all over the grass; they weren't just in the white bowl (which was just as well, because in some shots you can see it's full of rainwater). I scatter mealworms on the ground because it makes for more interesting viewing to see a hedgehog snuffling about than one sitting with its nose stuck in a bowl.

There must have been a few mealworms left over by daylight, because of the presence of the robin, who we see in the final couple of scenes of this video.

Pheasant gets to grips with a fat ball

We've been putting lots of food out for the birds in the garden, including a couple of fat balls which we've hung in the trees. This morning there were tidings of magpies (apparently that is the correct collective noun) and I think one of them must have plucked one fat ball from the tree. This hen pheasant, another visitor who has been frequenting the garden recently, seemed to be getting great pleasure from the fat ball, flipping it up in the air by the surrouding netting and pecking at it. It was quite comical to watch.

Another seasonal bird: the Redwing

This Redwing was outside my grandmother's flat this afternoon. There seem to be lots of thrushes in general around at the moment, including blackbirds, of course, and seasonal visitors in shape of fieldfares and redwings.

A Christmassy Robin

Some festive pics of our robin, taken on Christmas Day.

Elsa and the hogs

Last night Elsa was being fussy and turned her nose up at the cat food I put down for her, so rather than let it go to waste I put it outside for the hedgehogs. Of course, then she wanted it, and appeared in the photo captures throughout the night. It was almost as if she was guarding the food from the hedgehogs. Despite that, there were plenty of hedgehog visitors, including the baby.

Young rabbit and an unfortunate woodpecker

Today, as part of my personal fitness programme I cycled from Didcot to Oxford and then back again. Along the journey I saw a lot of wildlife, although most of it moves too fast to be able to photograph. I did manage to get a shot of this young rabbit (above).

Unfortunately, on the way home I found this woodpecker lying on the path. It was an isolated path through trees with no buildings and no traffic, so it seemed very weird to find it there on the ground like that. I wasn't sure if it was just stunned or dead, so I picked it up. It was still warm, so I guess the accident had only just happened. I put the poor thing on a log surrounded by ivy away from the path. Sadly, I think it was dead.

Sunday night 4th July and it's Hedgehog Central!

There was such a lot of hedgehog activity captured on the camera last night (as still photos) that the best way to show it to you is in the form of another slideshow video:

Hedgehogs, woodpigeons, and the return of another recent visitor

It was a very hot and humid night, and there were numerous hedgehog visits throughout.





As usual, the woodpigeons come down to pick over the leftovers in the morning:



But who is this in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo:

Could it be our visitor from a few days ago again?

Yes!

Conclusive evidence that we now have a squirrel visiting.

And a cheeky one at that!

At the bottom of the garden...

I thought I'd try putting the camera down at the end of the garden to see what I could capture of the comings and goings at the secondary feeding station.

But, as you can see the infrared flashback causes a lot of white-out on the grass.

A great shame, but you get an idea of the activity.

Another wet night and a new visitor

Wet again, and as on other such occasions, the hedgehog visits are fewer with only a handful of photos being captured throughout the night.


Come daylight some of the usual suspects come down to pick over the remains of the food the hedgehogs left behind...

...plus a visitor I very rarely see in this garden. I can only think that this is a grey squirrel.

200 posts already! Can you believe it?

Last night was quite busy again, with often two and occasionally three hogs visiting at the same time. I'm including ALL the night's still captures in slideshow format below:

Look out for a cameo from Elsa!

Re-location!

Yesterday we had a little tidy up in the garden, and I decided to move the hedgehog feeding station and the rubber mat "runway", because it was right in the middle of the patio and not in the most convenient position. So, it's all moved a few feet over to the right and up against the fence. In the photo below in which Elsa is checking over the new arrangement (she likes to be involved) you can see the hedge behind, and in the background of the photo to the left you can just make out the secondary feeding station at the bottom of the garden. I think I'm going to move this a little more to the right too.
We are often told that hedgehogs are creatures governed by habit and routine. I'm not convinced that this is entirely true, and anyway, they didn't seem too confused by the relocation of their facilities here in the garden.
Note the hedgehog feeding from the bowl on the rubber mat. This individual has been visiting regularly in recent weeks. He's distinguishable from the others by the two dark bars on his right shoulder. I'm trying to think of a name for him... Barney, perhaps?




I'm glad to see our blackbird is back! He's hardly had a look-in recently with the wood pigeons and the starlings.